Ladakh admin allows transfers for Grade II, III teachers, scraps non-transferable clause

Srinagar, Jan 9: The Ladakh administration has ordered omission of the non-transferable clause in regularisation of Teacher Grade II and Grade III teachers, bringing relief to hundreds of teachers in the region.

The government order, issued on January 8, 2026, comes in wake of a directive from the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Jammu Bench, which ruled that Rehbar-e-Taleem (ReT) teachers should be treated at par with General Line Teachers (GLT) for transfer purposes.

The ReT scheme, launched in 2000, aimed to decentralise elementary education management. The scheme was closed in 2018 but the ReT teachers continued to serve under the erstwhile scheme.

In 2019, these teachers were regularised as Teacher Grade II and Grade III, with a non-transferable clause except on a mutual transfer basis.

The CAT judgment, citing a previous case (Jyoti Gupta & Ors. vs. School Education Department & Ors.), directed the Ladakh administration to treat ReT teachers like General Line Teachers, enabling transfers within districts.

The government order has sanctioned the omission of the non-transferable clause, effective immediately, allowing Teacher Grade II and Grade III teachers in Ladakh to avail transfers as per the service conditions of General Line Teachers.

The move is expected to boost teacher morale and address long-standing grievances regarding their transfers.

The government order issued in January 2019 and July, 2019, the Government of the erstwhile J&K State subsequently created the cadre of Teacher Grade-II and Teacher Grade-III for the purpose of streamlining salary and related issues of Graduate and UnderGraduate ‘Regularised Rehbar-e-Taleem Teachers (RReTs)’ respectively.

“After bifurcations of the erstwhile J&K State into Union territory of J&K and Union Territory of Ladakh, the UT of J&K vide order issued in April 2021 has allocated 1083 supernumerary posts to Ladakh for transition of the RReTs as Grade II & Garde III Teacher,” the order reads.

In terms of Clause 3 (a) of the Government order issued in 2019, among others, provides that the service conditions of the Regularized ReT teachers, as teacher Grade- II and teacher Grade-III shall be same as prescribed for the GLTs with the exception that they shall not be transferable except on mutual transfer basis on other posts of other ReT Teachers on case-to-case basis and on the merit of each case.

“After apportionment of manpower between the two UTs, representations were received in the department for merger of cadre of teacher Grade-II and Grade III with GLT and omission of the non- transferable clauses of government order issued in 2019,” the order reads.

The administration of Ladakh UT constituted a committee for examining the transfer policy for RReTs (Grade-II/III teachers) and the committee submitted its report with recommendations that all service conditions of GLTs including the transfer within districts may be extended to teachers Grade II and teacher Grade-III.

“The matter was also examined by the General Administration Department, UT of Ladakh and it was advised that the non-transferrable clauses, as appeared in Government order No 20- Edu of 2019 and No: 243-Edu of 2019 dated: 16.07.2019 may be omitted through an administrative instruction in order to permit transfer of the RReT teachers,” reads an order issued by Administrative Secretary School Education Department (SED) of Ladakh Bhanu Prabha.

The matter was under examination in the Department, some Regularized Rehbar-e-Taaleem Teachers approached the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jammu, it reads.

“In compliance with the directions of the CAT, sanction is hereby accorded to the omission of the non-transferrable clauses and the said clause shall be deemed to have been omitted in respect of Regularized Rehbar-e-Taleem Teacher of Ladakh appointed at Teacher Grade II and Teacher Grade III, after their appointment to the UT of Ladakh and are serving in Ladakh,” the order reads.